A Bible Reader’s Website

BSN: ZION

Related: Jerusalem (the city called Zion)

Political Zionism
(Earthly Zionism)
  • “an international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel” – Merriam-Webster
Spiritual Zionism
(Heavenly Zionism)
  • I am proposing this term “Spiritual Zionism” to contrast it with political and historical meaning identified above. Whether others have suggested it before me, I do not know. What I do know is that the New Testament speaks of Zion in a spiritual way, affecting how readers should interpret it in the Old Testament as well. The idea, therefore, has been around since the 1st century.
  • Descriptive phrases:
    • NT:
      • Heb 12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
      • Rev 3:12 ‘He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
    • OT:
      • Ps 2:6 “…I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
      • Is 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.”
      • Jer 31:6 “…Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’”

The only Zionism that the Bible supports is Spiritual Zionism. Therefore, we could also call it Biblical Zionism. By contrast, political Zionism may be a legitimate political aim, but it is not a fulfillment of biblical prophecy…because all Bible prophecy has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, King of the nations.